BREAKING: March Madness joins long list of canceled sporting events due to COVID-19 concerns

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With the recent developments concerning COVID-19, the NCAA canceled the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The North Texas men’s basketball team was positioned to compete in the program’s first NCAA appearance since 2010. The Mean Green held the No. 1 seed in Conference USA and captured their first overall conference title in 30 years. North Texas was slated to face Florida Atlantic in the semi-final round at 6 p.m today.

“Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships,” an NCAA spokesman said. “This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.”

The cancellation of the NCAA Tournament came hours before C-USA announced they would be suspending all spring sports competitions.

C-USA announced the suspension of all spring sports competitions. This announcement was made an hour after the cancellation of the 2020 C-USA Basketball Championship tournament.

“Effective immediately, all spring sport competition for Conference USA institutions is suspended until further notice,” C-USA said in a tweet.

C-USA announced the cancellation of the games that remained to be played in the 2020 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships, effective immediately. This announcement came roughly 12 hours after it announced the conference tournament would be restricting attendance for the rest of the tournament play.

Following the NCAA’s decision to take action by limiting attendance during March Madness concerning COVID-19 Wednesday afternoon, C-USA has now confirmed it will keep a restricted attendance throughout the conference basketball tournament, according to local law and health officials. The C-USA basketball tournament was held at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

“Championships at The Star after consultation with the NCAA, local authorities and related health and safety officials. All remaining games will be played with the official team party, student-athletes’ family members, credentialed media, television and radio crews and essential personnel. The event will be closed to the general public.”

Four games were played Wednesday in the C-USA basketball tournament, where four additional games are scheduled Thursday.

Stay tuned for any further updates and announcements regarding the NCAA and C-USA’s decision making on other sporting events.

Featured Image: Junior forward Zachary Simmons dunks the ball against Western Kentucky on March 1, 2020. Image by Zachary Thomas